Tags
It’s Good Friday – traditionally the day for planting potatoes. Now this has never made much sense to me when the date of Good Friday changes each year, and the spring weather is pretty unreliable too. But, as it turns out, there is a reason for the choice of Good Friday for potato planting. Potatoes were of course, discovered in South America and brought to Europe by the Spanish during the 16th century. The arrival in Europe of a crop that wasn’t mentioned in the Bible, led to many people seeing potatoes as the devil’s food. One way to get around this was to plant them on Good Friday, in ground that had been blessed. But this year is not one to be planting potatoes out on Good Friday. I’m not going to say anything about the weather again, enough of that already, but let’s just say conditions aren’t yet favourable for planting in the veggie patch… The potatoes will have to wait, although I think I’ll plant a couple of my chitted potatoes into large pots in the greenhouse – it’s nice to keep to the tradition of Good Friday planting for at least some of the potatoes.
Since I wrote about making paper pots last month, there has been some interest in the brown paper pots that I used to make for herbs.
These pots were inspired by an idea in a Martha Stewart magazine. The original pots were made from coloured paper, and pictured in the magazine filled with crisps or something – a suggestion for a fancy way to serve snacks at a party. I adapted this idea to make a biodegradable pot out of recycled brown paper. Anna has left a comment asking if I could give some instructions for making these pots – so here we go…
Take a square of brown paper (or any paper really – but it needs to be sturdy enough to stand up to being filled with compost and watered). For these photos, I used a 12″ (30cm) square, which makes a useful sized pot, but you can play around with sizes.
First fold the square in half to make a triangle.
With the folded edge at the bottom, fold one of the base corners across the triangle so that it lines up with the opposite edge.
Fold the other bottom corner across in the same way to touch the other side.
Then fold the small triangles formed at the top of the pot down over each side.
Open out the pot by putting your hand inside, then fold the bottom corners in towards the centre to make a flat base. And there you have it a ‘posh’ paper pot.
Like all paper pots, they need reasonably gentle handling and don’t last forever, but the whole thing can be planted into the ground, allowing you to start your seedlings indoors and transplant them to the garden without any root disturbance when the warmer weather arrives – and it will.
Thank you, a lovely gardens thing to do while its so inhospitable outside. I’m going to make one now.
Thanks Anna – I hope the instructions work, they are very easy. Forgot to put in the post that I also used to make pots with a greaseproof paper ‘lining’. Cut a slightly smaller square of gp paper, lay it on top of the brown paper and fold both together to get an even posher pot!
What a good idea for this chilly weekend- I shall give it a go too! Thanks Sarah!
Don’t know about you, but I’m starting to run out of indoor gardening projects now – and space for any more seeds inside too, need to get outside soon…
I love this idea. So economical and easy!
Thanks Urvashi! Must admit I use a lot of toilet roll tubes for sowing seeds into as well – it’s not all posh pots here!
Great ideas ladies – I too have been indulging in a spot of indoor gardening whilst its still baltic outside!
My fave new way to start of seeds whilst recycling things you have around the house is too use an old food plastic tray of some sort like a prepacked mushroom tray from the supermarket, cut down a few old toilet rolls each one into three and fit them into the tray snugly side by side, then fill with seed compost and off you go! Apparently the seedlings can be transferred straight into the ground too as the toilet roll will decompose. Gemma 🙂
Toilet roll tubes are just brilliant for seed sowing – slightly less photogenic for blogging purposes though!
I’m almost relieved that it is still cold, I haven’t started digging my patch, there is 40m of fencing to go round it and I only started chitting spuds last week. A couple more weeks of chilly sunshine will be ok! Thanks for the folding info for the pots, I will give it a try.
You may well get your wish for more cool weather if the forecast is right, but it would be nice to be able to go outside without having to wear umpteen layers…
That’s everyday of the year if you live here 🙂 Out of the wind and in the sun, it almost feels temperate, almost…
Keep meaning to make newspaper pots since reading your last post mentioning it – the step by step instructions and pics are great though. Even more keen to give them a go, though imagine my clumsiness will still mean my versions are a tad messier.
Nope – there’s absolutely no skill or creative ability required for these… if I can make them, anyone can!
My spuds are chitting nicely too – just need the snow to melt and the earth to warm up. I didn’t realise about planting potatoes on Good Friday so that was interesting! The paper pots are lovely 🙂
I’m beginning to wonder if the ground will ever warm up enough to start planting!
Brilliant idea, I love it and will make some myself. I love reading your tips on planting!
Thanks Laura, they really are very easy to make and could probably be used for a whole range of things.
Never knew that story about the potatoes – it’s a good one! Supposedly, the French king got the peasants to eat them by declaring them Royal Property, then instructing the ‘gaurds’ around the plots to let them steal as many as they could!
Will have to save the paper pot instructions – very cool!
I hadn’t heard the story about the French king – now if only I could use similar tactics to get my daughter to eat beetroot, cauliflower, spinach…
I do like the idea that people have been justifying indulgences for centuries. Not that potatoes are an indulgence particularly unless they are in chip form I guess.
Chips are definitely an indulgence – especially served with salt and mayonnaise!
Thanks for the tips.
The weather over here in France has been quite freezing too, although we didn’t get the late snow that came down in some parts of the UK. So no planting yet.
I have never left a message on your blog, so I’d like to use this opportunity to say that I find your blog most inspiring;
Thank you for leaving a comment – such a nice one too, it made me smile! The weather has been just terrible – let’s hope spring warmth arrives for all of us soon and we can get on with some planting.
I always thought potatoes were planted on Good Friday because it was the first holiday of the year, when people might have some free time!
I heard that too – probably works both ways… but I did like the idea of planting on Good Friday to get around the whole forbidden food issue!